


My True Love Gave to Me

by ScarfyTheShipster



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Presents, Established Relationship, Fluff, Jack is extra and does extreme hardcore last second Christmas gifting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 07:37:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9062683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarfyTheShipster/pseuds/ScarfyTheShipster
Summary: Jack is bad at Christmas and on the 23rd of December still hasn't gotten Rhys anything.Thank goodness for last minute inspiration.





	

Jack was bad at Christmas.

It was the day before Christmas Eve and he hadn't done anything. At all. Rhys had been in a festive mood for weeks, excited and bouncing off the walls as he decorated their whole shared house. House being a relative term, considering Jack had a whole section of Helios to himself and Rhys had strung up garland and lights and everything Jack could imagine. No doubt Rhys had already got his Christmas present. Jack hadn't even got Rhys a candy cane.

He was REALLY bad at Christmas.

Jack sighed and rubbed his eyes. Rhys mattered to him. He definitely deserved a good present. Work was finally caught up enough that Jack could have some time off, but it felt too late. 

When in doubt, call Blake.

The ECHO only rang once. "Handsome Jack, sir?"

"Jeremy, my man. I've got a problem."

"It's Jeffery. What can I do, sir?"

Jack reclined in his chair and rested his ankles on the desk. "I need to get my boyfriend a Christmas present. It has to be special, snazzy, unexpected."

"Uhm, perhaps something romantic? Sir?"

"Lingerie? Please, that boy has gotten enough silk and lace from me to last a lifetime."

"O-oh," stammered Jeffery. "I meant flowers, or-"

"Hey you know what?" Jack smacked his hand on the armrest, sending a wave of dopamine right into his veins. "I just thought of the best gift ever! You're such a help. You're the best! Really."

Jack hung up and smiled to himself. He knew exactly what Rhys would want.

-~-

"AAAH!"

Rhys's office was swarmed with birds. 

Screeching and chipping and aggressive fluttering of wings bombarded his ears and he grimaced. He ducked his head and swatted at a few of them but paled when he made eye contact with a swan. Bright birds blocked his vision as he attempted to leave, fear coursing through him.

The swan hissed and Rhys realized it wasn't a swan, but seven swans. Seven fucking swans out for vengeance. 

Oh. And geese.

"What the fuck?" panted Rhys. He flung his door back open and bolted down the hall. Was this a prank? "HELP! SWANS! PANDORAN SWANS! GEESE! GEEEEEEEEEEESE! OH GOD!"

Jack appeared practically out of nowhere and stepped in right behind Rhys, facing the bird horde. "Sure are troublesome, huh kiddo?" He unloaded an entire magazine of his pistol into the hall and sighed at the bird corpses. "They're pretty. Pretty dead! Hahaha!"

Rhys struggled to breathe as he stood by Jack. Why was Jack there? Did he know? "You have anything to do with vicious swans and geese in my office?" 

"Me? What? That's crazy." Jack pecked Rhys's cheek. "Love ya, babe. I'll get someone to clean the feathers out of your office." He left with a playful smack on Rhys's butt and he desperately hoped no one noticed, which was absurd because probably everyone and their mom saw it.

That should've been the end of it. Rhys had a lot of work to do and needed Christmas off. Jack had been dating him for almost a year and he wanted their first Christmas to be peaceful. Nice, quiet, and normal. 

Nice, quiet, and normal lasted four minutes.

"Uhhhhh, hello?" asked Rhys as several girls sashayed into his office in maid outfits. This was certainly Jack's doing. They all had extremely short skirts Rhys felt guilty looking up and lots of frills everywhere as they took the little birds and feathers away. "Um- uh- thanks? Ladies?"

No one said anything as they cleaned and Rhys fixed his eyes on his computer screen, face flaring red when one of the maids bent over very close to him to vacuum. 

Why Jack. Why.

Rhys was grateful when they left, and even more grateful when lunchtime arrived. He sighed, wanting to unwind from his bizarre day.

He heard pounding and some sort of jarring melody coming from the Hub of Heroism and jogged down the corridors to reach it.

"I didn't know Hyperion had parades!" he exclaimed. The pounding was from a drumline twelve members strong stationed in a circle around the hub, slowly rotating around it. The horrendous music was from far too many bagpipes inside the circle, but what made it tolerable was a large group of dancers and acrobats in fancy costumes, leaping and coordinating with the drums. All of them were in red or green and Rhys smiled watching their short performance. 

For such a peculiar morning, the rest of the day was eerily quiet. Rhys was on edge for a reindeer to burst into his room, or for a mariachi band to follow him home. All he did was clock out and leave, musical posse not included.

Rhys let himself into his home and sought out Jack, who was baking cookies. "Hey babe! Try this!" Jack pressed a warm cookie into Rhys's mouth before he could say anything and Rhys's confusion left him for a moment as he let the cookie dough and the mostly melted chocolate chips dissolve in his mouth. "Have a good day? I bet you did, and tomorrow's Christmas! Fuckin' great, right?"

He savored his cookie and sighed. "It was weird. Had a lot of feathers, and French maids. Care to explain yourself?!" he huffed with a slight sharpness.

Jack grinned. "Judging by how you left your pear tree, you don't get it yet, huh?"

Rhys followed Jack's gesture to a small potted pear tree in the living room, next to their Christmas tree. "Was that in my office?"

"Let's seeeee," drawled Jack, ignoring Rhys. "You got hens, doves, swans, maids, lords and ladies, drummers, pipers, calling birds, geese, and a partridge in a pear tree. Getting it yet? Know what you're missing?" Jack was bouncing on his heels as Rhys comprehended his day. 

"Oh- oh! It's that song! Twelve days of Christmas! Awww, that's so sweet, but over the top. Geez." Rhys was smiling through, and he helped himself to another cookie. "I'm not missing anything, am I? That was a lot of birds. And after the birds are, uh-" it struck Rhys as Jack went down on one knee in front of him. "What? Oh my god-"

"Rhys, my love, my boyfriend." Jack held Rhys's hand and kissed it, drawing out the moment. Rhys stared at Jack as he brought out a velvet jewelry box. "Would you be my fiancé?"

Rhys shakily opened the box and could've fainted. Five shining gold rings all with different, ornate, extravagant gemstones were cushioned in the box in an H shape. He opened his mouth to try and convey how touched, how overwhelmed he was, but all that came out was, "I got you a sweater."

Jack hugged Rhys and soothingly rubbed his back as Rhys sniffled in shock. "You can pick any of those rings you want, and the other four can just be yours to keep."

"I- I didn't really get you anything! Not like this!" Rhys felt terrible as he genuinely cried on Jack, ecstatic but also guilty. "You only got like a sweater and some food and candy and-"

"Shhhh. Just you is more than enough for me." Jack squeezed Rhys and pecked his cheek. "To be honest, I kinda threw this all together yesterday. Twelve days of Christmas became one day of mayhem because I procrastinated. Whoops." 

Rhys kissed Jack firmly on the mouth and hummed as Jack kissed back. They pressed against each other and Rhys was blissful and light. Fiancés. Engaged. He touched his forehead to Jack's and beamed at him. "Thank you so much. I love you."

"Merry Christmas, Rhysie."

"Just one thing?" Rhys kissed Jack again. "No swans or geese next year, please."

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a secret Santa for paristhedragon in a tumblr gift exchange
> 
> Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!


End file.
